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On 16 July 2010, the Spanish Cabinet adopted a resolution to allocate a national digital
multiplex to each national DTT concession operator: Antena 3, Gestevisión Telecinco,
Sogecable, Veo Televisión, NET TV and la Sexta. The digital multiplex was composed of four
digital television channels that could be operated twenty-four hours a day.
The allocation was made upon request and after the switch-off of analogue broadcasting,
once it had been verified that the DTT service concession operators had met the obligations
relating to the promotion and development of digital terrestrial television that they had
assumed in the framework of the Spanish Technical Plan for Digital Terrestrial Television and
the Royal Decree governing the specific allocation of DTT multiplexes, following the switch-
off of analogue terrestrial television broadcasting.
A judgment handed down on 27 November 2012 by Chamber Three of the Spanish Supreme
Court rendered void the resolution of the Spanish Cabinet of 16 July 2010, which had
allocated to each of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licence holders, including
Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A. and Gestora de Inversiones
Audiovisuales La Sexta, S.A., the capacity equivalent to a digital multiplex with national
coverage composed of four channels.
This allocation had been made pursuant to a set of rules which, since 1997, upon approval of
the National Plan for Digital Terrestrial Television, and particularly upon enactment of Law
10/2005, of 14 June, governed the transition from analogue terrestrial television to DTT,
which was completed in 2010. The allocation was made once the Government had verified
that the licence holders had complied with all the requirements and obligations incumbent
upon them to foster transition to DTT, as a condition for gaining access to the multiplex.
The judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court annulling the allocation was based primarily on
the fact that the allocation was made after the entry into force of the General Audiovisual
Communications Law (enacted one month before the Spanish Cabinet adopted the annulled
resolution), which stipulates that the licences must be granted through a tendering
procedure. The Supreme Court inferred from this that "the licences must reflect the content
which existed upon entry into force of the Law, with no more channels being allowed", while
the General Audiovisual Communications Law does not provide for any safeguard permitting
the regulations to be applied prior to their entry into force.
The judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court noted at the time that the matter would have
been resolved had the General Audiovisual Communications Law included a provision
envisaging that the rules in force prior to its enactment should continue to be valid. The
obstacle posed by the judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court is therefore basically formal,
because neither the conceptual basis of DTT, nor consequently its completion through the
allocation of a multiplex to each operator, have ever been questioned.
On 22 March 2013, the Spanish Cabinet adopted a resolution to comply with the judgment of
the Spanish Supreme Court of 27 November 2012, indicating that the affected channels must
cease broadcasting and associating this process with the freeing up of the digital dividend.
Subsequently, on 18 December 2013, the Spanish Supreme Court issued an order enforcing
the aforementioned judgment, referring, inter alia, to the channels affected by its judgment,
which included three of the channels being operated by Atresmedia at that date.
On 6 May 2014, as a result of the enforcement of the aforementioned judgment of the
Spanish Supreme Court, the channels affected by the decision, three of which were operated
by Atresmedia (Nitro, Xplora and La Sexta 3), ceased to be broadcast, despite having
complied with all the imposed obligations.
At that point in time, the accounting impact of the closure of these channels on the separate
and consolidated financial statements was assessed in accordance with applicable accounting
legislation. The assessment did not disclose the need to recognise liabilities or commitments
related to the closure of the channels, and it was not necessary to recognise any impairment
losses or changes in value in accordance with applicable accounting legislation, except in